Next generation project managers in the digital evolution age

The rate of technology change has been accelerating for a while and continues to do so. Given it's not likely to stop anytime soon, we should expect the next generation of project managers to deal with shorter projects, constant organizational change, and continual technology integration.

I will take your comment "as-is" then please do not be ungry with me. AI in construction is using from long time ago mainly in China where I have the opportunity to work. The problem is some people, where hear "AI", think about robots. That´s totally wrong. By the way, in my current work place, AI based initiatives are implemented for lot of fields.

This is realy a difficult topic to address. From my point of view it would depend a lot on the digital and tech impact of your current projects landscape. In certain sectors, like high tech and R&D, the PM should be tech driven, but would never reach the level of the real experts. On the other hand, I see the PM more on the role to be the glue, and the internal mechanism of the project that makes all the pieces work together. In this sence, we should be ready to learn, adapt, adopt and promote all potential digital changes and impacts. AI techniques and digital evolution trends are becoming more and more essential in some sectors, and they somehow would be part of every project.

Dear Ivan,

Good question and not something that has come up in discussion before in great detail. The more recent trend in project management is more people management where the project manager does not need to know everything but have the capability and capacity to bring in SME when required and have a project team skill base that evolves according to the requirements of a project at a specific time. As such project team members have become contributors and resources. If this trend continues and the use of Artificial intelligence and machine learning become standards tools for project managers, you will see smaller temporary project teams that maybe only assigned to a specific task of a project and once completed move on to other projects as apposed to being reassigned on different task. Project managers would become more closely aligned with the project sponsors and key stakeholders as apposed to the project team.

Daire

I think that developing our strategic side will help us use AI to leverage a world of knowledge and help our projects become successful. AI will just empower us to create better and faster solutions for our stakeholders and clients.

A successful Project Manager will use all the tools available to efficiently completing projects. I can envision AI as a tool available to a PM to help them make the right decision. AI are self-learning computers and are ideal for mining related information and providing what they believe is the best course of action for any given situation. Complete reliance in AI is not viable as the AI in question might have never being exposed to the information requiring a decision and plan of action.
The PM and the rest of the project team still need to analyze all the information at hand and take the correct decision. Decisions are not all logical. There are environmental, political, and many other factors that must be considered before a final decision is made. AI would only provide the logical decision accurately. For example, if in a given year there is a change in government policy and the new stakeholders have a different view than previous team, then the AI recommendation will not sit well.